School Speech Therapist
Impact: Student communication development and academic success through expert speech-language therapy
Assess and treat students with speech, language, voice, fluency, and communication disorders in school settings. Develop individualised treatment plans, provide direct therapy services, collaborate with teachers and parents, and support students in developing the communication skills they need to succeed academically and socially.
What the day looks like
- People interaction
- Moderate
- Team vs solo
- 60% Team / 40% Solo
- Client facing
- Sometimes
- Impact visibility
- Moderate
- Travel
- 80 to 100% in school settings
- Schedule flexibility
- Moderate
- Remote work
- Hybrid
- Typical work hours
- 38 to 50 hours/week
- Stress level
- Low
At a glance
- Median salary
- $95,000
- Entry-level
- $60,000 - $80,000
- Senior
- $140,000+
- Growth by 2033
- 19% (faster than average)
- Demand
- Growing
- Freelance potential
- Very Low
- Salary growth potential
- Moderate - 50 to 65% growth from entry to senior
- Typical student debt
- Moderate
Skills you'll use
Hard skills
- 70
Soft skills
- 30
Technical complexity: Moderate
How to get there
- Minimum education
- Master's Degree
- Licensing
- No
- Years to mid-career
- 2 to 4 years
- Years to senior
- 5 to 8 years
- Career switching
- Hard
Where this career leads
How people arrive here
Where you can go from here
Typical progression
- Clinical Fellow > School Speech Therapist > Senior Speech Therapist > Lead SLP > Director of Special Education Services
Future outlook
- Automation probability
- 10% very low risk as speech therapy requires human relationship and clinical judgment
- AI disruption risk
- Very Low
- Demand trend
- Growing
How people feel about it
- Overall satisfaction
- 7/10
- Meaning
- 7/10
- Work-life balance
- 6.5/10
- Prestige
- 7/10
- Social perception
- High